Danny Phantom-The Curse Of The Werewolf
by kitsune reyoki
Summary: The werewolves are dying out so they need to recrute more, Turning Danny into one.
1. Chapter 1

**Aiden called the meeting to order grimly, which was my first sign that something bad was happening. He lifted his head into the air and a mournful howl danced on the wind. Fear made my limbs numb as I lifted myself onto my feet and bolted toward the group in a flash, completely abandoning the buck I had been gnawing contentedly on.**

**We assembled quickly, the voices of the wolves echoing in our minds. But Aiden's voice easily overpowered the others, silencing them. I was too terrified to speak. We each bore a special and unique power, and mine was the power of Knowledge. Some called it psychic, some called it simply intelligent, but I knew things. The future, the past, what have you. And I knew what Aiden, our Alpha, was about to say.**

**There has been an attack, gasps echoed through the crowd, quickly silenced by a mere look from our leader. one of the nearer packs. They're all dead.**

**What pack? a panicked voice cried out. It was Selena. She had been seeing one of the neighboring packs, considering mating with their Alpha and splintering from the pack. We were all anxious now, hoping her beloved Kaliko hadn't been killed.**

**Kaliko is fine, Selena, Aiden said, causing her to collapse in relief. "It was not his pack. It was Geordie's.**

**While no one had been mating with anyone from Geordie's pack, this was still a huge blow. Geordie's was one of the biggest werewolf packs giving hope to the dwindling population. And now everyone was dead. Even the pups. The future of the werewolves. Fire danced in my veins. What kind of monster would kill innocent pups?**

**I knew that answer.**

**Over the cries and whimpers of the distressed wolves Aiden spoke again, quieting us.**

**The time has come for desperate measures. I'm afraid I need to ask a lot of you. But we need to build an army and destroy the threat. I must ask the females to breed. I must ask the males to recruit.**

**I balked, hiding my head beneath my paw. None of the other females ever had a problem with breeding. They were all cooing in happiness with the revelation. Most of them would have become pregnant anyway and were just looking for an excuse. But I… well… I wanted pups, but right now I wanted to fight. To recruit. How was I supposed to fight if I was pregnant?**

**One hundred and thirteen years old and never had a litter. I was surprised I wasn't an abomination. But I had always been more of one of the boys, hunting and playing while the girls preened and predicted how many offspring they would produce this season.**

**But I had to do what was best for my pack… right?**

**The meeting disbanded and the females were on the topic of who they would mate with. It would have to be neighboring pack males since all our males were recruiting. But I didn't like any of our males like that. I sighed and sat down heavily, letting out a long whine.**

**Mira, I looked up at the sound of my name. Aiden was making his way toward me through the crowd. I stood quickly, presenting myself in a dignified manner. Our tails waved once in greeting when he came to a stop in front of me. You're the strongest female here and I have a special mission for you. I need to keep my offense in top shape, and you getting pregnant would unfortunately put you out of commission. I know how much that must upset you. his eyes glittered with laughter and I grinned, rolling my eyes.**

**Yea, would be a real drag, I said sarcastically.**

**This is why I need you to recruit, he said hesitantly. but it won't be simple.**

**Recruiting is no problem, I said eagerly, trying to keep my tail from wagging like a fool and embarrassing myself. I can go right now if you want!**

**You will need to, he sighed. I need you to recruit very far from here. I tilted my head questioningly. You see, Mira, there is this town in America called Amity Park. There is a boy that is very powerful. He is much like the evil one, a half ghost.**

**My growl hissed through my teeth. Speaking of half ghosts was all but forbidden but recruiting one?**

**He is good, however, Aiden continued, ignoring my outburst. He keeps his town safe from those who threaten to destroy it. And if we could turn him into one of us… he would be a valuable asset. But he may not do so willingly. I know I frown on sneak attacks, but I need to ask you to bite him without his knowledge. We've seen what power like that can do if used negatively. But to use it to protect the packs and save the world… he sighed again. We need this.**

**I'll do it, I said in a steely voice. I don't agree with it, but I know this is necessary. I'll go and recruit him.**

**Don't rush, Aiden said. You have the most important job. Don't rush it and lose him.**

**I nodded. Aiden stepped forward and brushed the side of his face against mine, a wordless good luck. Then he left to speak to the boys.**

**The world was changing. Our kind was dying and a new breed was forming… a breed that would destroy the world if it could.**

**Humans and werewolves alike were in danger.**

**Danny Fenton's scooter hummed loudly as he drove down the poorly lit street on a cold Sunday night. Luckily, it was a full moon tonight and its intense white glow seemed to brighten his path better than any streetlamp alone. He had spent this past Saturday not by watching morning cartoons, going to the movies or even going to the local amusement park, but catching ghosts and foiling their evil plots. But it was worth protecting his hometown.**

**After all, it was his job.**

**But today was one of his so called 'normal' days. One where there wasn't a trace of that annoying Box Ghost, Ember McLain, or even his arch enemy: Vlad Plasmius. He actually felt like a normal fourteen year old without any superpowers, for once. He took a deep breath and sighed. The whole moment seemed so perfect to him; so clear. Letting all his stress disappear without a trace as the cool night air swept against his face. He wanted this day to never end.**

**But as he knew well: all good things must come to an end.**

**A light blue mist instantly escaped through the cracks of his lips and slowly faded away into the air. Ghost sense? Danny thought disappointedly, accompanied by an audible groan. So much for a perfect ghost-free day.**

**He quickly went down the street and parked his scooter in a dark alley near the Nasty Burger, a restaurant where he usually hung out with his two best friends: Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. As he placed his helmet on top of the black leather seat, his icy blue eyes looked around the area to see if the coast was clear to transform. The place was deserted, being it was nine thirty and the restaurant was closed for the night. But still, he could never be too careful.**

**"I'm going ghost!" he shouted.**

**A whitish blue ring of light instantly appeared around his waist and split in two, moving in opposite directions simultaneously. Danny's regular clothes: a red and white t-shirt, baggy blue jeans and red and white skater shoes, had disappeared as the rings moved over his body. Where his clothing had vanished was a skin tight black and white jumpsuit with gloves and boots. His messy raven black hair inverted to snow white and icy blue eyes to a glowing bright green. An emblem in the middle his chest was a white "D" with a black "P" inside exposing his real nature as his alter ego: Danny Phantom.**

**With a short jump, Danny soared in to the air. His two legs had fused into a thin grey tail as he picked up speed. He didn't mind it one bit, although it took a while to get used to when he discovered his ghostly powers six months ago. His ghost hunting parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, had constructed an invention called the Fenton Portal. Its sole purpose was to create a gateway into the ghost dimension, making it easier for his parent's research. Unfortunately, once they had activated it, it didn't seem to work.**

**When his parents left, Sam had insisted Danny to figure out the problem. It was a big mistake for him and it would change his life forever. He accidentally turned in on while he was inside of it and fused ghost DNA with his own DNA, changing him into a "halfa": half human, half ghost.**

**Now he had to survive high school and hunt ghosts in his spare time. Not to mention hiding is identity from his parents and everyone around him. The only people who knew about his status were: Sam, Tucker and now his older sister: Jazz.**

**So much had changed since that accident during those six months: the town had seen him as an evil ghost and called him by the name: "Inviso-Bill" (thanks to a rule freak warden named Walker, and his army of guards), a full scale ghost invasion by Pariah Dark: the king of ghosts, and facing his alternate evil self from ten years in the future (with the help of Clockwork: an ancient and mysterious ghost who could control time). These were just to name a few of his amazing adventures when he had become a superhero.**

**"Now where could that ghost be?" he asked himself. "I just want to get this over with, so I can get home and not miss my ten o'clock curfew for the billionth time!"**

**His ghost sense went off again, only stronger this time and drifted away into the distance. This was another part of his power. He could find to location of the ghost just by following the trail of light blue vapor. He came across the local park as the trail suddenly ended cold. It was silent, with only the wind rustling the trees and the creak of the swing sets.**

**Something's very wrong with this picture… thought Danny nervously.**

**At the corner of his left eye, a large shadowy blur jumped from a large oak tree in the distance and landed silently out of Danny's view. Danny's heart leapt and thought it was going to start beating again while in his ghost form. He clutched his Fenton thermos tightly.**

**The blur moved faster this time. A slightly low growl was heard for a second and then vanished. The ghost boy was growing nervous with each passing second. He knew the ghost was coming for him, but it wanted the right moment to strike and then BAM! Straight into the Fenton thermos for him or it was big trouble for Danny.**

**The familiar growl was heard again, but louder and angry this time. It was getting closer. Danny carefully took the top off the thermos and locked his trigger finger on the button.**

**Where are you? He thought. Why do you want to do this? I never did anything to you. Did I?**

**Beads of sweat rolled down the side of his pale face. What are you doing Phantom? It's just one ghost so pull your self together and-**

**"AHROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO!"**

**A bloodcurdling howl rang in Danny's ears. Before he could even react, an intense wave of pain stabbed through his entire back side like sharp knifes. He screamed in agony. He never felt pain like this before. It was much more painful than Vlad's most powerful ectoplasmic blasts, the force of Pariah's ecto-clap and mace and even Dan's ghostly wail combined. He felt it in three different spots, each of them throbbing in strong waves when he tried to touch them, each one more intense than the last. The ghost leaped in front of him and charged for another attack, but this time Danny was ready.**

**Trying to ignore the pain, he made himself intangible and phased through the ground. The ghost barely missed him and screeched to a stop, kicking up dirt and grass in every direction. It snarled in anger and looked around the battle scarred park franticly. A bright green blast of energy suddenly sent it flying into a small maple and made it snap like a twig on impact.**

**Danny hands were curled into fists, but he winced in agony trying to charge up for another clear shot. Giving the slightest twitch just made the pain worse. He could now see the ghost's characteristics more clearly in the moonlight. It was tall and muscular, with a patched crimson red ad gold cloak draped around its entire body. Its arms were as thick as tree trunks and ended them with hands the size of small watermelons. On the tips of its fingers were five bright green, razor sharp claws. Its legs were powerful and sturdy, also ending with five claws and a bushy, almost club-like tail. It was covered in black fur from head to toe with a long hooked scar near its chest.**

**Most of the ghost's head was covered, but Danny could see two gleaming blood red eyes peering from beneath the hood of its cloak. Danny could clearly tell it was some kind of ghost wolf, but its pose was oddly familiar. He just couldn't remember, due that his injury was all he could think about at the moment.**

**The ghost shook off its injuries and moved its head side to side; Danny could hear a loud cracking sound from it. Its red eyes gave off a slight flicker of anger.**

**"Dio," it growled softly.**

**Before Danny could figure out what it had just said, the ghost leaped into the air at high speed, claws extended for the kill. Danny managed to move out of the way before it could take a swipe at his head, but the pain was becoming unbearable for him to take. The ghost attacked again and this time, slashed at Danny's chest, tearing the front of his outfit to ribbons and exposing bare skin. The attacks just kept coming and Danny was having problems of dodging them, due to his growing injuries.**

**"Dio Phantom!" the ghost roared. Danny could see now the ghost was a wolf with a massive tanned snout and two rows of sharp teeth like miniature daggers. It lunged at Danny, its jaws opened wide and dripping with green saliva. Danny couldn't take another head on attack. If he did, it was over.**

**I've only got on shot at this, he thought. I'd better make this one count.**

**He turned intangible once again and the wolf passed right though him. Pulling out his Fenton thermos, he aimed it at the ghost and pulled the trigger. A blast of blue light shot out from the top of it and trapped the ghost in a trap of whitish blue rings. Almost like a vacuum cleaner, it began to suck the ghost into its inescapable walls. Letting out one more terrible howl, it disappeared inside of the thermos.**

**"Well, that takes care of my dog problem," said Danny, as he twisted the cap back on the thermos. He had taken some serious damage during his fight. His trademark emblem had almost disappeared, his chest was almost entirely exposed, and parts of his arms and legs had shown parts of skin and were slightly bleeding an unusual bright green blood. But he was mostly concerned about his back injuries. He thought he broken a rib or two and was losing blood fast. He felt weak, almost too weak to fly. Trying to shake it off, Danny flew into the night sky.**

**"I can pick up my scooter on my way to school tomorrow," he said to himself. "It's getting too close to curfew time."**

**In less than five minutes, he arrived at his house. It was like every other house, except it had a few exceptions to it such as an observatory which looked like a UFO had crashed landed on his roof and the large neon sign with the words: "FENTON WORKS" flashing every two seconds, was barely hard to miss.**

**"Home sweet-" Danny began. The pain shot through his back again, only this time it was stronger than anything he had felt before. He couldn't think straight. The pain was overflowing his mind with horrible screams and howls.**

**Back away, foul demon! Screamed an old man; the crack of bones overthrew the sound of his screams.**

**Run for your lives! Shouted a young woman; a terrible howl of a wolf droned out her voice.**

**He seeks only death and destruction! Cried a young boy; he screamed too.**

**The sounds were too overwhelming for Danny to bear. He couldn't concentrate at all. The two whitish blue rings appeared at his waist again and changed him back into his human form. The voices were still screaming in his head as he fell at the bottom of the steps with a loud crash.**

**"Go away!" cried Danny. "Make it go away!" He held his hands to his ears, trying to block out the hideous sounds. But they still howled and screamed in his head even louder.**

**But then they stopped abruptly. There was silence. But the pain was still unbearable to him. Everything hurt, from his head to legs; waves of pain shooting up and down his body. Tears welled in his eyes.**

**A light suddenly turned on and a shadowy figure ran down the steps.**

**"Danny?" Its voice was soft and soothing.**

**Danny looked up to see his sixteen year old sister, Jazz. Her long strawberry blonde hair was a tangled mess without her headband and her turquoise eyes were filled with a mix of shock and concern. She was wearing a pair of dark blue pajamas that looked slightly too big for her and fuzzy red slippers. She crouched down beside him and lifted his head gently up to hers.**

**"Danny, what's going on? What's happened to you?" she demanded.**

**"Ghost…" Danny said weakly. "Jazz, it hurts so much…"**

**Jazz saw the front his shirt was stained with blood in three different places, as well as near his arms, and legs. She tried to carry him into the house but she almost screamed when she saw his back and dropped him. Running from his neck to the middle of his back were four long claw marks with crimson blood shimmering from the wounds.**

**"Danny, we have to get you the hospital immediately!" she shouted. "I'll get mom and dad-"**

**"Jazz, no," whispered Danny.**

**"This is serious. You've lost a lot of blood," said Jazz. "You could die-"**

**"I'm already dead," answered Danny with a weak smile. "But, if you insist. Don't tell mom and dad just yet."**

**Hot tears streamed down Jazz's cheeks. "Danny, I don't have a choice."**

**"Jazz, please…" Danny's icy blue eyes were drooping slightly. "Don't tell them…"**

**His sister wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. "Okay, Danny. I won't."**

**"Thanks Jazz." Danny vision was starting to blur. His world was beginning to spin uncontrollably, faster and faster until it was a vortex of swirling colors. The voices began to scream in his head once again. He tried to cover his ears, but it just made it worse. His head throbbed. Pain shot through his body once again.**

**Poison of this earth!**

**Mutant scum!**

**Freak!**

**Destroy the beast!**

**"Shut up!" he screamed. "Go away! Leave me alone!"**

**"Danny, what's happening?"**

**Accused creature, be gone from this place!**

**Die, spawn of evil!**

**Go back from whence you came!**

**Tears streamed down his face. "Jazz, make them stop! Everything hurts! Just make them stop!"**

**"I don't understand! What's going on?"**

**He couldn't fight it anymore. He was too weak, mentally and physically.**

**"Jazz, help me…" he whispered. His eye lids drooped slowly and his breathing became shallow.**

**Jazz took hold of Danny's arms and shook him. "No! You have to stay awake! Fight it, Danny! Fight it!"**

**But as hard as he tried, he couldn't. Danny's eyes rolled back and closed slowly, as his sister's screams echoed through his consciousness along with the other voices. Then suddenly, everything faded into empty and silent darkness.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Danny slowly opened his eyes. He just laid there on the ground, his arms and legs out stretched. He looked around. It was dark. But then something came into focus. It was a small rural town; the kind where it was almost deserted because of an intense fight. Old brick houses towered over him like miniature skyscrapers, with cracked windows and their shutters half way off their hinges. The wooden doors had large claw marks carved into them, as if some wild animal had passed through and tried to attack them.**

**Where am I? he asked himself. Am I...dead?**

**He looked at his hands and moved them. He could still feel them, but they were ice cold and clammy. He shivered. He was cold and tired. He realized he was lying on a grey cobblestone road, covered with dirt, fresh blood and ashes. He suddenly heard voices in the distance.**

**"There he is! It's the beast who killed our children!"**

**"He's still alive? Impossible!"**

**"Forget how he survived; let's get rid of him once and for all!"**

**Danny saw an army of shadowy figures in the distance. They were all faceless; their only detail was their glowing eyes which shone like red hot coals. The rest of their bodies were hidden in black fire, embers flickering off their skin and fingertips. They carried flaming torches, silver swords and crosses, gleaming through the darkness and intensifying their lifeless eyes.**

**Frightened, Danny tried to get up and run or even try to go ghost, but he couldn't. He was pinned down, as if gravity had intensified ten fold. He couldn't move a muscle; he was trapped. The shadow army came closer, their weapons pointing straight at him. One of the villagers threw a torch at him and he felt the heat coming closer and closer to his face.**

**But then, the torch disappeared into thin air. A gleaming golden light cut through the darkness and the shadow army backed away, hissing as the light came in contact with them. Danny had to squint to see what was happening. The familiar loud howl of a wolf rang in his ears.**

**Standing in front of him was a wolf with golden fur. It stood on its hind legs with gleaming silver claws and crystal blue eyes. It let out another howl and with one slash of its front claws, the shadow army disappeared into a vapor of grey smoke with a crowd of agonizing screams.**

**It turned around to face Danny, its silver claws still extended. Thinking the wolf was going to same thing to him, Danny flinched. The wolf cocked his head curiously and its front claws contracted back into its paws. Crouching on one leg, it gently nuzzled Danny with its large yellow snout and licked him playfully on the cheek. Danny laughed, but tried to hide it.**

**(It alright young one, I will not harm you. I am a friend.)**

**Danny was surprised the wolf could talk, let alone speak telepathically to him.**

**"Who…are you?" he asked nervously.**

**(I go by many names. Golden wolf, angel of the beasts, but you may call me Serenity.)**

**Judging by her voice, Danny could tell the wolf was female. Her voice was soft and gentle, yet powerful and compelling at the same time. It handed a paw out to Danny to help him up and he took it. He felt dizzy and weak. Serenity gave him another lick, on his forehead this time. A warm feeling washed over him and he suddenly felt his strength slowly returning.**

**"My name is Danny," he replied as he took a moment to balance himself. "Danny Fenton."**

**Serenity nodded. (Yes, I know all about you and your counterpart, Danny Phantom.)**

**Danny was stunned. "How-?"**

**(Did I know your secret?) interrupted Serenity. (I am of one of the guardians of the Ghost Zone. Clockwork is another one, but of a specific duty.)**

**"Time," answered Danny simply.**

**(Correct. My duty is to watch over the animal ghosts of the Ghost Zone. I can take on many forms as I wish, but I usually appear in this form. You have saved one of my kind, one who goes by the name of Wulf.)**

**Danny was having an instant flash back. Wulf was a werewolf ghost who was captured by Walker a few months ago. He had helped him get into Danny's world by using his special power of opening a portal, just by using his claws. He spoke in an artificial language called Esperanto and only knew a few words in English, so he was difficult to understand.**

**On the night Walker had sent a massive ghost attack on Amity Park, Danny saved Wulf from Walker's right hand man: Bullet, from being captured. Wulf had returned the favor later by taking a shot from Maddie's Fenton Bazooka and was sent back into the Ghost Zone, along with Walker in the process.**

**So far, Wulf was his only ghost friend. Danny could still remember Wulf's final words before he had disappeared into the portal.**

**"Friend, we'll meet again."**

**Danny had waited for several months now, even after Pariah's invasion and changing his own future. Wulf had still yet to return and fulfill his promise. Danny wanted to get to know him a bit more and even help him map out the Ghost Zone.**

**Serenity continued. (He is one of my, how should I put this, most visited ghosts. He has told me how you saved him and your great deeds in your lifetime.)**

**The fourteen year old was puzzled. "But I'm not an animal, so why are you talking to me?"**

**(I know. But soon you will be, and you will need to end a terrible battle of bloodshed and sacrifice. Anger and power. Good and evil. They need you, Danny Fenton and Phantom, to help them end it or else it will spread like disease all over our world and yours.)**

**"I don't understand. Who are 'they'? And why are you telling me all of this?"**

**Serenity bowed her head. (All in good time young one. But I must go now. You must wake up and face your destiny or else everyone is doomed.) The golden wolf closed her eyes and began to fade away. Her golden light grew fainter around her dying image.**

**"Wait, Serenity!" cried Danny. "Don't go!"**

**Danny lunged at her, but she was gone and instead landed onto the ground. Her voice called out for him in his head, but it sounded much more serious and worried.**

**(Beware of your darker half, for he is the one who will show what your true nature is. Remember the ones you love the most. They are the key to your survival…)**

**Her voice faded away into the returning darkness and Danny suddenly felt himself beginning to fall down through the once vacant road. He let out one final scream and his vision suddenly went black.**

**Danny's eyes snapped wide open. He was lying on a hospital bed in a white room. His face was covered in cold sweat. A heart monitor was placed on a stand on the left side of him, the thin green line moving in sync with his pulse. A bouquet of red roses was placed in a crystal vase on a night table, reflecting off the sunlight. A plastic mask and tube was placed over his mouth, possibly connected to an oxygen tank, and his arms were covered in white bandages.**

**I'm back, he thought. It was just a dream. Or was it actually real?**

**"Danny?"**

**Danny looked up see Jazz, who sitting beside him. She was crying; her turquoise eyes filled with tears of joy. Sobbing, she wrapped her arms around her only brother and hugged him tightly. She was at a loss for words, which was a big surprise for Danny.**

**"Mom! Dad! Come over here quick!" she shouted.**

**Maddie and Jack rushed over to where Jazz was sitting. She was still crying, but she was trying not to show it in her now red eyes. Maddie had removed her jumpsuit hood, revealing her short brown hair and dark violet eyes. She began to cry and Jack did the same.**

**"Danny! You're okay!" cried Maddie as she kissed Danny on his forehead.**

**"You gave us quite a scare son," said Jack. "We thought we had lost you. If it wasn't for Jazz, you'd probably been another resident of the Ghost Zone by now."**

**Well, I'm sort of one right now, Danny thought.**

**"How long was I out for?" he asked weakly.**

**"About four days," answered a voice in the distance.**

**Danny turned his head to see Tucker and Sam in the doorway. Tucker was holding his trademark PDA while Sam was carrying a large bouquet of assorted flowers. Secretly, Danny knew how both of them felt: worried and concerned.**

**"Tucker, you know I can't fall for the same trick twice," said Danny. He recalled when he had collapsed after fighting the Lunch Lady ghost at Casper High. Tucker had joked around when he had said he was asleep for four days, when it was actually just a couple of hours.**

**"Sweetie, Tucker's telling the truth," said Maddie, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "You've been in a coma for over four days now. We were scared that you wouldn't wake up ever again."**

**Danny's eyes widened. He was in a coma? Four days? He wondered how the other kids had reacted at school, not to mention his teachers. Would he get special treatment or would everything be back to normal?**

**Sam came over and placed the bouquet near the vase of red roses. "The English department all chipped in to bring you this Danny. Dash and Paulina were even surprised to hear about what had happened. Some of the students and even Lancer came by to visit, too. All of them are worried about you."**

**"Yeah, dude," added Tucker. "You were out cold when we first visited you. You weren't moving or anything, like a statue."**

**Danny looked up at his parents. "Mom, Dad. Would you be able to-?"**

**Maddie nodded at once and ruffled his messy black hair. "Of course, honey. Jack let's go out for a little bit and get some air. I'm sure Danny and his friends have a lot to talk about."**

**"Sure thing, Maddie," said Jack.**

**Both of the parents walked out of the room and down the hall. The four teenagers waited until they were out of hearing range for them to talk in private.**

**"Danny," said Sam quietly. "What exactly happened to you? You know…when you passed out in front of Jazz. She had told me it was a ghost, but she wasn't quite sure."**

**Danny rubbed his head. "That night…my memory's kind of fuzzy. There was a black blur, so many voices, extreme pain…"**

**"You don't have to try too hard," said Jazz calmly. "Try to remember what happened before you passed out."**

**Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. "I don't remember…wait…there was blood, a lot of blood. My whole body hurt so much; it was like being split in two. There were voices screaming in my head; the howling of a wolf. That's all I can remember."**

**"Can you remember what the ghost looked like?" inquired Tucker. "Maybe we could identify it with your files."**

**"Everything's so blurry," said Danny. "I don't think I could-"**

**"Take your time. It's okay," whispered Jazz. "There's no rush."**

**Danny took a deep breath and concentrated. "It was big and tall."**

**"Keep going."**

**"With black fur," continued Danny. "Or was it red and gold?" The raven haired teen shook his head. "No, it was wearing a cloak. But, I could see it had black fur."**

**"Good. What else?"**

**"It was some sort of animal. I think it was a wolf, but it was hard to tell."**

**"Did it have any weapons on him?" asked Tucker.**

**"It had massive claws," said Danny. "I can remember that for sure."**

**"That would explain the bandages," said Sam. "Danny, when I first heard what happened that night…my parents…they were actually worried about you."**

**Danny's eyes widened with surprise. "They were?" he asked. Sam's high strung parents were never actually fond of him ever since Circus Gothica had come to town and still had reasons of filing another restraining order for him.**

**Sam nodded. "You should have seen them when they first heard about it on the news."**

**"I was on the news?" repeated Danny. "Like on TV?"**

**"Well, duh," said Tucker flatly. "Where else could everyone hear about your mishap?"**

**Danny was starting to sweat. "Did they…you know…when they tested my blood…"**

**Jazz shook her head. "No. It's strange though. Your blood should have contained ectoplasm mixed with your human blood, but they didn't find a trace of it."**

**"Does this mean I don't have my powers anymore?" asked Danny.**

**"Only one way to find out," said Tucker. "Try to go ghost."**

**Danny concentrated hard for the familiar whitish blue rings to appear around his waist. In a split second, they did and changed him into his ghost form. His white hair shone in the dim sunlight and his bright green eyes gave off a slight glow.**

**"Well, that answers my question," said Danny as he quickly changed back. "But that's really weird. How could they not find any ghost DNA?"**

**"Forget it, dude," said Tucker. "The good thing is you'll be back to normal in no time."**

**A young nurse with long blond hair and bright blue eyes suddenly walked into the room. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you, but visiting hours are over. You have to leave."**

**"That's alright, miss, "said Sam. "We were just about to leave anyways. See you later, Danny."**

**Danny gave a weak wave to Sam and Tucker and disappeared down the hall along with the nurse. Jazz was just about to head out the door too, before Danny remembered something important to say.**

**"Jazz?" he asked.**

**His sister turned towards him. "Yeah, Danny?"**

**Danny gave a weak smile. "Thanks for not telling them yet."**

**Jazz closed her eyes, nodded and smiled. "Siblings have to help each other in their time of need. And remember: it's our secret." She gave him a short wink and quietly closed the door behind her.**

**Danny lay back onto his pillow again. At least some things were taken care of for right now. But something was still bothering him. In his dream, Serenity had said something about his darker half and revealing his true nature. Did this mean his future self would return to fight him again? It didn't make any sense to him at the moment. His head hurt of asking so many questions.**

**Something else was bothering him since he woke up. His bandages were so itchy that they were driving him insane, but he had tried to ignore the urge to scratch them. Finally, he began to scratch violently at the one on his left arm. It wasn't going away. Frustrated, he began to unravel the bandage. When he finally took it off, he gasped.**

**He suddenly remembered where the ghost wolf had slashed at him with his claws. The wounds were so deep that they needed serious medical treatment and tons of stitches. He thought there would be a mark or a scar where the wound would have been closed up. But his skin was unmarked; no sign of any scars or scabs anywhere the wounds were.**

**Uncertain, Danny unraveled the other bandages on his other arm, legs, chest and back. They had the same results as his arm, as if the wounds had never came in contact with him at all. This was seriously weird for Danny to handle and he wasn't sure how this had happened. After all of his ghost fighting, he had always come out with a couple of minor cuts, scratches or bruises which would heal normally in a week or two, but nothing like this.**

**Maybe this is another ghost power I've suddenly learned, he thought. Maybe I've suddenly learned how to heal myself. He paused for a moment and shrugged. I'd better sleep on it.**

**Danny closed his eyes and let sleep overcome his senses.**

**It took half of the morning the next day for Danny to get out of the hospital. It could have gone a little faster for his parents to fill out the paperwork, if Jack hadn't given an hour's lecture about the hospital's risks of not having a security system against ghosts. Jazz thought she was going to die of embarrassment; Danny was starting to regret from ever waking up.**

**While driving back home in the Fenton RV, a faint image of Serenity flickered in the back of his mind. Danny began to wonder why she came to him in the first place. And why had she given him a warning about his "dark side"? He thought of his evil future self, Dan Phantom, for a moment. From his pale green skin and flaming white hair, to his blood red eyes and chilling evil laughter. Danny shuttered and shook his head. He couldn't come back. Danny had given Clockwork his Fenton thermos that contained the beaten Dan inside. The master of time had assured Danny that he would keep watch over the thermos.**

**Maybe what Serenity had said was a premonition? Danny was confused of what was going on in his life. Being half ghost and protecting to the town from ghosts was one thing, but now this? Danny knew he wasn't going to tell Sam and Tucker about his dream. Not until he could sort out all of these weird events that have been happening lately.**

**He was still intrigued of how his wounds had healed so quickly. Once he arrived at home, he shut himself inside the bathroom to make sure he wasn't dreaming the previous night. Nothing; not even the tiniest scratch or scar anywhere on his body. Maybe his theory about his healing powers was correct after all. This was all news to him.**

**Much to his relief, there was no ghost activity for the rest of the day (if you didn't count the Box Ghost, who had popped out of Danny's closet once he had entered his bedroom.) Everything was beginning to come back to normal. Well, normal as Danny could put it. After all, not many people were half ghost and were visited by a giant talking gold wolf while they were in a coma for four days.**

**Maddie had miraculously prepared dinner that night without any explosions in the kitchen or even mutating the food. It was meatloaf night; Danny's most hated meal night. But strangely, Danny had three portions of the weird tasting meat without any complaints. Maddie was surprised of Danny's appetite, but she had guessed he was just hungry from eating hospital food. Jack thought Danny had come in contact with some kind of ghost virus. Luckily, Jazz quickly changed the subject before Jack could continue on with his theory of experimenting on Danny's blood.**

**Danny couldn't sleep later that night. He tossed and turned endlessly in bed. He was restless and bored. He missed being outside and flying around in the cool night sky. With a bit of patience, Danny transformed while his parents were asleep. He was about to head out the window before his door had opened slowly.**

**"Danny," whispered a familiar voice, "shouldn't you be resting?"**

**Danny turned around to see Jazz in the doorway with her dark blue housecoat draped tightly around her. "Oh, it's just you Jazz," he sighed. "I thought you were mom for a minute…"**

**"What made you think of that?" asked Jazz.**

**The halfa shrugged. "Well, for one thing you're wearing one of her jumpsuits."**

**Jazz blushed. "I am not!"**

**Danny flew over to Jazz and lightly touched her with is index finger. Her housecoat turned intangible and quietly dropped to the floor. Danny was correct. Jazz was wearing one of Maddie's black and turquoise blue hazmat suits, complete with hood and oversized bright red goggles.**

**Danny cocked an eyebrow accompanied by a sly smile. "Well?"**

**Jazz knew she couldn't lie now. "It's like this," she explained. "I thought I could handle the ghosts tonight while you rest. After all, you just got out of the hospital."**

**Danny waved a hand. "Jazz, don't worry. I can handle this on my own. It's not like I haven't fought a ghost on my own before. Just go back to bed-"**

**"No," said Jazz. "I'm still concerned about your safety! I just don't want to lose you again…" Her eyes began to fill with tears again as she crumpled onto the floor.**

**Danny floated silently for a moment. "Jazz…" he finally said. "I didn't know…that…you know…"**

**He didn't know what to say about his sister. Ever since he was born, Jazz watched over him like some sort of guardian angel, making sure he didn't get into trouble or get hurt. She stuck up for him as much as she could, whether it was his parents or from bullies. He suddenly felt guilty because he hardly did anything for her in return and always thought she was just another mom to him. But she wasn't; Jazz was just overprotective and concerned. Jazz really did care about him. It was time to give her what she wanted for a changed.**

**He placed a white gloved hand on her shoulder. Jazz stopped crying and looked up.**

**Danny calmly smiled. "Are you coming?" he asked.**

**Jazz wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She pulled her jumpsuit hood over her head and mounted the goggles over her eyes. Danny looked back at her.**

**"Do you have a weapon?" he asked, curiously. "I might not be able to protect you when we're out in the field."**

**Jazz pulled out a Fenton Peeler and a Jack-o-Ninetails from her large side pocket. "Is this enough to satisfy your needs?" she answered. "I also have this." She held up what looked to be a silver lipstick tube in front of his nose.**

**"Nice," Danny said, flatly. "You're exactly like mom."**

**"Are we going or what?" demanded Jazz, while she put her weapons back into her pocket.**

**"Almost, you might feel strange for a minute," said Danny.**

**"Strange? What do you mean-?"**

**Jazz stopped in mid sentence. Danny instantly became intangible and flew into her chest. She shivered and then she became stiff as a board. Her eyes flashed a brilliant bright green and faded back to their original turquoise. She told her legs to move, but she couldn't make them do anything her brain commanded. She could still see, feel, and breathe, but nothing else.**

**"I told you it might feel weird for you," she answered to herself.**

**Jazz was shocked she was talking to herself. She thought she was going crazy. She tried to answer, but failed.**

**Danny? Is that you? She thought. Where are you?**

**"I'm right here," her new voice suddenly answered, placing a hand at her chest where her heart was. "I've overshadowed you."**

**Overshadowed? She asked. What does that mean? Jazz guessed she could only speak to her brother in thought. She hoped Danny would answer again.**

**"It means I've taken control of your body," Danny explained. "I can make you do anything I want you to do. Like, move your arms." Jazz's arms moved up and down by themselves. "Or even make you fly." Jazz's feet hovered an inch off the ground, before she faced the window. "I recently mastered the technique of retaining the person's eye color and voice."**

**Wow! So, does that mean you can use all of your ghost powers while you overshadow me?**

**"Let's find out!"**

**Jazz's entire body became intangible and she flew through the window into the starry night.**


	3. Chapter 3

**As "they" flew, she looked down to see the rooftops of neighboring houses topped off with satellite dishes and weather antennas. The view was amazing. She had only ever been up so high on an airplane, but this was completely different. She had forgotten the town was so peaceful at night. They passed by the local mall, with its lights shut off and a vacant parking lot. As they flew over the Nasty Burger, the overpowering smell of grease and smoke overtook Jazz's sense for smell for a few minutes.**

**A light blue wisp of mist unexpectedly made her gasp for a moment.**

**Looks like we have a ghost after all, thought Jazz with a slight chuckle.**

**"You're cheerful tonight," said Danny.**

**We should land here. We can figure out where the ghost is if we split up and cover more ground.**

**"Good idea. You're really starting to become like mom and dad after all." The overshadowed Jazz stopped in mid air and gently floated back down onto the sidewalk. "By the way, how long have you been wearing mom's jumpsuits for?"**

**That's none of your business. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like control over my body again.**

**Danny laughed hard, even after he got out of his sister's body. It took a couple of seconds for Jazz to adjust being normal again. Overshadowing was a very strange power, especially if your younger brother happened to be part ghost and could control everything you did over your own free will. Jazz hated to think of what would happen if she got Danny angry.**

**"So," she said as she clutched her Jack-o-Ninetails firmly in her hand, "where's the ghost?"**

**"I'm not sure," replied Danny. "My ghost sense can only lead me so far."**

**"So, what you're saying is we've lost our route. Way to go, Danny."**

**"Jazz, I didn't mean that-"**

**Danny suddenly fell silent. He smelt something in the night air; it was bitter and sickening. That scent was so familiar to him. He smelt it everyday when he walked back and forth from school: exhaust fumes and gasoline from passing cars.**

**"Do you smell that?" he asked, trying to find the source of the scent.**

**"Smell what? I don't smell a thing," said Jazz, sniffing the air. "I think you're imagining it."**

**"No, I'm serious! It's coming from down the street!"**

**A loud roar of an engine unexpectedly filled his ears with sound. Was that a car? He wondered. He looked around, but nothing seemed to be on the road. The noise came again only twice as loud. It was coming from down the street, just like the scent. But who could it be? Without telling his sister where he was going, the ghost boy jumped into the air and took off down the road.**

**"Danny, wait up!" cried Jazz, trying to keep up with her brother's flying speed. Why does he always rush into things like this? She wondered. Is this what all superheroes do all the time?**

**The "24k Jewelry" store's sign read "Closed" in bright red letters. Its doors were shut tight, but for some reason, its dim lights were on. This was certainly not because of the manager's laziness or lack of security. It was something else. Someone or something was inside.**

**A teenage boy, not a year older than sixteen, was looking over a glass display of diamond rings. His fairly greasy, mid-length dirty blonde hair fell neatly over his pale skinned face. His emerald green eyes peered over the glass covered counter, its soft glow reflecting off the sparkling trinkets. He was dressed in a dark grey trench coat with its sleeves rolled up at the elbows, a white t-shirt, black leather biker's gloves, a silver belt with an overlapping chain, baggy black pants and silver colored boots. A pendant with a light green skull hung loosely around his neck.**

**Oh man, he thought, worriedly. I'd better hurry and choose before Kitty finds out where I've been! But there's so many, I don't know what to pick out for her anniversary gift!**

**Johnny 13 ran his index finger over the glass, gazing at the expensive jewelry each lying in its own case. He had to find the perfect one for his girlfriend, Kitty, who was waiting impatiently back in the Ghost Zone. It had been one year since he had proposed to her, but at the same time, when they both arrived in the strange dimension after they had mysteriously died in a motorcycle accident.**

**"Let's see now," he muttered. "Too tacky, too many diamonds, too little diamonds, no diamonds at all, too small, too big…bingo!"**

**His eyes fell on a silver ring with a diamond, the size of a dime on the top. It was the perfect one for Kitty's taste. He just hoped she would like it once he got back. He read the small white price tag resting right beside the case.**

**"Winter Diamond ring: $2000"**

**He grinned. "Perfect!"**

**Since he was a ghost, no alarms were triggered when he phased his hand through the glass and pulled the diamond ring out. After a quick examination, Johnny shined the diamond on his shirt and stuck the ring in its black case. He was about to stuff it inside one of his pockets of his trench coat, when all of a sudden a blast of green energy knocked it out of his hand.**

**Johnny jerked his head from were the blast was shot, only to see Danny Phantom floating in the air, with his fists charging up for another shot. He seemed not too happy with his stunt. Hastily picking up the ring case, he brushed some invisible dust off the top.**

**"Hey man, that's my girlfriend's gift!" he shouted. "You could have trashed it!"**

**"I can do more than trash your gift, Johnny," said Danny angrily. "Don't you know stealing is against the law?"**

**Johnny scowled. "Oh yeah? Well, here's a law of my own: no white haired punk like you is going to stand in my way!"**

**He put his two index fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. An enormous pitch black ghost with glowing green eyes instantly emerged from the ceiling. Three long black dreadlocks waved freely in the back of its head while its eyes narrowed into slits.**

**"Shadow, teach him a lesson," commanded Johnny.**

**Johnny's bad luck shadow let out a low growl and extended its razor sharp claws. It lunged for Danny with its pointy bleach white teeth curving into a malicious smile. Danny managed to move out of harms way at the last second before Shadow took a swipe at his torso and instead, its claws sliced one of the store's mannequins in half.**

**"You missed me!" Danny shouted. "Your aim seems worse than the last time we've fought!"**

**Shadow growled with anger, its dreadlocks violently waving in the air. It tried for a second attempt for the ghost boy, only this time the ghost was shot back by an ectoplasmic blast from Danny's hand. It shrieked in agony as the bright energy came in contact with its skin, creating a large hole in its chest.**

**"But mine's improved!" Danny blew off green smoke from the tip of his index finger, imitating a cowboy from an old western movie.**

**Johnny 13 stared at his beaten shadow. He knew it was only a matter of time before Danny found an energy source capable of generating enough bright light to weaken his shadow and cancel out his powers. Frightened, he jumped onto his customized silver and grey motorcycle with a bright green number "13" painted on each side, reflecting off of his headlights. He clutched the handlebars tightly while his engine gave off a loud roar and spat out grey exhaust.**

**"Sorry that I can't stick around, but I have to bail," said Johnny smugly. "But don't worry, you won't get lonely. Shadow will keep you company." Shadow's chest suddenly regenerated, while it shook its injury like it was just a harmless scratch. "Later."**

**He popped a wheelie on his motor cycle and took off through the front window with a loud crash. Shattered glass fell onto the pavement as he revved his engine louder so the whole town could hear him. He was about to turn on the corner when all of a sudden, a tangle of silver plated cords ensnared his body and forced him off his bike. He landed onto the sidewalk with a hard thud while his bike took off down the street.**

**"It's been a while hasn't it, Johnny 13?" said a voice above him. It was a young girl's, loud and angry. "About five months to be exact since you used me as your little girlfriend's 'host'."**

**The greasy haired teenager looked up helplessly to see a woman dressed in a black and blue hazmat suit, complete with hood and large red bottle cap goggles. She was holding a lime green and silver baton in one hand, with one long silvery gray cord trailing along the ground and connecting to the contraption he was captured in.**

**"Look lady, I didn't-" he began, but he was cut off by a sudden gag from the woman's baton.**

**She lifted her hood and goggles off to reveal a sixteen year old girl with turquoise eyes and long strawberry blonde hair, held up by a light turquoise headband.**

**"Remember me now, Johnny?" she said furiously. "Jazz Fenton: Danny Phantom's sister. Ring any bells?"**

**Johnny swallowed hard. "Hey there," he said, laughing nervously. "Um…no hard feelings about Kitty possessing you, right?"**

**Jazz's eyes lowered. "Can your sweet talk, ghost. That night, when your girlfriend switched with me, I was heartbroken. I couldn't trust boys for a while." Johnny just stared and tried to wriggle free of the Jack-o-Ninetails' grip.**

**Jazz continued. "Do you know how long it took me to get over that?" She held her father's invention tightly in her hand with pain and anger. "Three months. You make me sick, double crossing your own girlfriend like that. How low can you get?"**

**The cords tightened harder around Johnny's chest. If he was still human, he would have suffocated by now and his ribs would have been crushed. Still, he felt pain.**

**Shadow, help me! He shouted in his thoughts, hoping his luck would change.**

**Danny came flying out the window headfirst and crashed into a nearby dumpster, bruised and beaten. His outfit had been torn at the sleeves from Shadow's claws and had scratches on his left cheek. Shadow let out another loud growl and made a leap towards his master.**

**"Jazz, look out!" Danny cried.**

**Jazz rolled out of the way, but she accidentally dropped her Jack-o-Ninetails in the process. Shadow's claws extended and cut the silver cables around Johnny, practically making the weapon useless to Danny's sister. Johnny broke free and grabbed Jazz's neck before she had the chance to use her Fenton Peeler. Jazz tried to escape but the ghost's grip was stronger than she had thought. She gasped for air; every second Johnny squeezed harder.**

**"How does it feel to be on the other end of the line?" he sneered.**

**"Let-go-jerk…" Jazz wheezed. "Danny-help…"**

**But Danny stood frozen on the spot. He didn't know what to do. If he tried to save Jazz, Johnny would call out his shadow again to attack. If he didn't, Jazz would be suffocated at the hands of a ghost.**

**"Danny!" Jazz called out weakly. "Please-help…"**

**Her eyes slowly flickered with unconsciousness; she gasped and wheezed while she tried to claw out of the teenage ghost's grip. Johnny laughed; he was certainly enjoying her torture well.**

**"Jazz, no!" Danny screamed, his eyes swelling with tears.**

**And then, something happened.**

**An unspeakable force pulsated inside of him, filling his ears with what sounded like wind and beating drums. Blood rushed to his head and back again, pain searing through his very bones. They twisted and cracked unpleasantly; he howled in agony. He heard the sound of his material of his uniform rip. His eyes clouded with a swirling reddish mist, almost the color of blood. He felt immense power coursing through his veins; he needed to use it and now.**

**"Get your hands off of my sister, you dirt bag!"**

**As Danny screamed, rings of ectoplasmic energy shot through the air at breakneck speed towards Johnny 13 and the fading Jazz. In instinct, Shadow stretched out its body as a shield for protection. But as the rings hit its skin, Shadow let out a terrible shriek and evaporated into a cloud of pitch black mist. Johnny had to let go of Jazz to cover his ears because of the horrible noise the rings were producing. It was like nails on a chalkboard only it was much louder and ten times more horrible. It even shattered the windows on near passing buildings into tiny shards.**

**He was knocked back into a building by the ring's sheer force. Jazz fell limp onto the concrete ground gasping for mouthfuls of air. Danny leaped over her and right where Johnny crashed into. It was a few feet away from the jewelry store with now powdered concrete and debris strewn all through the alley. The biker ghost struggled to get to his feet, overwhelmed by how powerful Danny's new attack, the Ghostly Wail, was.**

**With a loud 'thud', Danny landed in from of him; his eyes burned with anger and hatred. He clenched his teeth as he let a low angry growl rattle in his throat. Johnny's bright green eyes widened in fear and tried to back away from the furious halfa, but then he met the rough brick surface of a neighboring pawn shop.**

**"L-l-look man," he stammered, "I-I was just-"**

**Before he could utter another word, a hand swiped against his shirt and squeezed against his neck. Johnny coughed and sputtered, trying to kick the half ghost with no results.**

**"Showing my sis how to strangle herself?" snarled Danny, his eyes flashing a chilling blood red in color. "You mangy, low down son of a-"**

**"Danny?"**

**Both of the ghosts turned to a weak and standing Jazz, her eyes wide with fright. Her legs were shaking uncontrollably, due to she was still out of breath. She had dropped her Fenton Peeler in shock onto the pavement.**

**"What's…happened to you?"**

**Danny's eyes quickly faded back to its original bright green in color and released Johnny. He looked down on his hands, now stained with glowing green blood and nervously turned back to Jazz, who was slowly approaching him.**

**"Stay away from me!" he shouted, backing away from his sister. "I don't want to hurt you!"**

**"But Danny-"**

**"STAY AWAY!"**

**Jazz gasped and stopped dead in her tracks. She could see something long and sharp at the edges of Danny's fingertips in the dim moonlight. He was two feet taller than before, and larger in size. Most of his features were hidden by the shadows of the alley, but Jazz could see her brother's eyes were now tiny pupil less green slits. Danny took one last angry look at her, growled deeply and disappeared into the night sky as a shadowy blur.**

**Jazz could now hear Johnny whimper beside her, shaking with fear like a frightened child. His eyes were wide as he could get them and his pupils had shrunk to pinpoints. She tried to approach him, but he screamed and backed away from her in fright.**

**"Send me back!" he pleaded, throwing the ring case at Jazz's feet. "Here, take the ring and send me back into the Ghost Zone. Just please, don't make him come back. He's out of his mind. He's crazy. He's…an animal!"**

**A ghost who wants to be sent back? That's a first, thought Jazz.**

**She pulled out her Fenton Thermos hand and pressed the button. Johnny smiled weakly as the light blue beam touched his skin.**

**"Thanks, doll," he said softly. Jazz closed the lid and sighed.**

**"Danny, wherever you are, please be alright," she whispered. She pulled her hood and goggles over her head once again, and slowly walked down the empty street with tears of grief sliding down her face.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Danny woke up very late the next morning, so late in fact that he had only fifteen minutes to get ready for school. His body was sore all over as he got up and he had accidentally phased through his bedroom wall without knowing it, to get into the bathroom (luckily, his parents had failed to notice). Jazz was exceptionally tired too, once Danny had entered the kitchen. Dark bags had formed under her eyes and she yawned every ten seconds.**

**"So, um…Danny," Jazz began, while passing a few slices of toast to her brother, "are you okay?"**

**"A bit sore and tired," Danny mumbled as he cracked his neck side to side, "but I'm fine."**

**"No, I mean about last night," Jazz whispered. "What happened to you? You were all crazy and ferocious at first, and then you were all cautious and nervous."**

**"I really don't know." Danny rubbed his head. "I can't remember anything after I attacked Johnny. It's all a blur."**

**"By the way, how were you able to attack him at such a far distance?"**

**"I'll tell you when we're in the car." Danny and Jazz put their dishes into the sink and headed out the door for school.**

**"Hey dude," greeted Tucker. "How are you feeling?"**

**Danny shrugged as he took out his books for first period out of his locker. "The usual: tired and sore." He didn't really feel like telling his best friends about last night's events; they wouldn't understand.**

**"Are you sure you wanted to come to school today?" asked Sam. "Lancer has been giving out a load of homework since you were gone."**

**"I didn't actually have a choice," answered Danny, grimly. "My folks insisted when I was feeling better, I'd have to get back to my school work."**

**"Well, it's better than trying to cheat your way back in," said Tucker. "Remember the C.A.T. answers?"**

**"I handed them back in the end," reminded Danny, "and I still passed the re-test. Well, barely at least to Lancer's standards."**

**"Just be thankful, you're not crushing tanks or destroying the town ten years from now," said Sam.**

**The loud ring of the first period bell alerted the students to get to their classes. Danny and the gang wasted no time getting to Lancer's English class. As Danny set foot into the room, the loud chattering of the class suddenly died down quickly and many pairs of eyes just stared at him. Mr. Lancer merely gave a short smile and a curious hard stare.**

**"Well, it seems that Mr. Fenton has returned from the hospital sooner than we expected," he said coolly. "Let's give a round of applause for his recovery, shall we?"**

**All at once, the class applauded and cheered wildly. Danny felt accepted in the first time of his fourteen year old life and he was pretty happy for his temporary spot in the limelight. He took his seat, along with Sam and Tucker, and Mr. Lancer signaled the class to quiet down.**

**"All right, that's enough excitement for one class. Now, can anyone tell Mr. Fenton what we've covered in his absence?"**

**Sam's hand shot up. "We were just beginning to read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and explaining about the affects between good and evil."**

**"Very good, Mrs. Manson," said Mr. Lancer, who sounded quite pleased. "At least someone has been paying attention in class. Now, turn to chapter two in your books and continue up to chapter four. Danny, since I don't have any spare copies with me at the moment, you will have to share with Mr. Foley."**

**Works for me, thought Danny with a brief shrug. Tucker took out his copy of the novel and Danny leaned towards his desk to read along.**

**Forty-five minutes later, the bell rang once again and the English class ran out into the hallway in frenzy. Danny, unfortunately, had to stay behind to get his copy of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and the literature notes he had to answer with every chapter. The only good thing that came out of his meeting with Lancer was he wasn't assigned any of the homework he had missed when he was in the hospital.**

**In Science class, he was partnered up with Tucker to test the conductivity of certain liquids and solids. Since Danny was banned from using beakers and test tubes in the lab, due to his "clumsiness", Tucker was the only one who could measure the liquids.**

**"Hey Danny, can you set up the battery and the solids on the plate, while I'm measuring?" asked the African American, trying not to spill an unknown clear liquid on his lab paper.**

**"Sure thing," replied Danny, adjusting his lab goggles. "Just try to be careful measuring that stuff. Palooka said one of them is a strong acid."**

**"Hey, I'm the master of being careful." Danny rolled his eyes at Tucker's comment, reminding him about few months ago when he was at the pier and Tucker accidentally dropped the Fenton Thermos, releasing all the ghosts Danny had captured that night.**

**Danny plugged in the cords and the battery to the nearest outlet near their table. He began placing several pieces of metal onto the Petri dish, trying to identify which one was which.**

**"Okay," he said to himself, "copper, gold, I don't know what this one is…YEOWCH!"**

**Danny dropped a silver colored piece of metal onto the floor and rushed to the nearest sink, putting his now smoking right hand under cold running water. Somehow, he had burnt his hand while picking up the strip of metal. He noticed now there was a small, but noticeable burn mark in the center of his palm. The water seemed to numb most to the pain, but it still stung.**

**"Is everything alright here, Danny?" asked Mr. Felucca, the science teacher. He was a short little man with a pointed nose, balding grey hair and a large pair of glasses that magnified his beady eyes to look like an owl. "Is something wrong?"**

**Danny hesitated. "Er… I just slightly burned myself on a piece of metal that's all. I think I left the battery on it for too long and made it overheat. It should be fine now; Tucker took the cables off of it." He gave a wink to Tucker as a signal.**

**"I guess Danny wasn't paying attention to what he was doing," said Tucker nervously.**

**The Science teacher came around to Danny and Tucker's table to examine the predicament.**

**"Hmm…it seems you burnt yourself on the silver strip," he concluded. "Luckily, it's cooled down now. Is your hand alright, Danny?"**

**"Yeah, but it still stings a little bit." He showed his hand to Mr. Felucca, which was now pink with a bright red rectangular burn lodged in his palm. The teacher readjusted his glasses and shook his head in dismay.**

**"Oh dear, we'd better treat that burn quickly then. Come with me."**

**Danny followed the science teacher down the classroom and into the supply room. There, Mr. Felucca took out a first aid kit and pulled out a roll of white bandages. He wrapped it carefully around Danny's hand and ended it with a metal fastener.**

**"There, that should do it. Don't take it off until you get back home. I'm sure your parents can do a far better job than I have."**

**Danny looked at his now bandaged hand. "Thanks. I guess so."**

**What was that all about? he wondered. He said I burnt myself on silver. Do ghosts have allergic reactions to silver? Or does it just affect half ghosts?**

**The cafeteria was bustling with activity as usual, before he was in the hospital. The lunch lady served unknown dishes of food that Danny didn't want to know what it was made of. Thank goodness they served burgers and soda here, or he'd starve. After paying for his meal, he sat with Tucker and Sam at their so called "loser" table (although his hand still hurt while he carried his tray).**

**"So, Tucker told me what happened in Science class," said Sam. "Is it true you brunt yourself on a regular piece of metal?" She pointed out the bandage around the raven haired teen's hand.**

**"Weird, huh?" said Danny with a shrug. "It wasn't even hot either. I mean, it was when it touched my skin but it seemed fine when Felucca picked it up."**

**"Maybe it's an allergic reaction to ghosts."**

**"That's what I thought too. Something weird is going on-"**

**WHACK!**

**An airborne piece of mystery meat hit a direct bull's-eye at the back of Danny's head. A group laugh was heard from the popular table in the east side of the room, while Dash and his posse approached Danny's table.**

**"I told you guys Fenton would be back for this week's target practice," he said in his nasally high voice. "Nice shot Kwan; definitely an improvement from last week's mashed potato incident."**

**Danny just merely wiped off the foul smelling substance with his free hand. "It's nice to see you too, Dash," he said sarcastically.**

**"Don't you have any sympathy?" protested Sam. "Danny just got back from the hospital!"**

**"Whoa, looks like Manson's going on the offence for Fenton!" teased the blonde haired jock. His posse snickered and grinned.**

**"When's the last time you tried asking Paulina out, Dash?" interrupted Tucker, giving a hard glare at the jock. "Oh, that's right: last week, but she turned down the offer because she thinks you're a low down jerk with no hand eye coordination! No wonder she likes the ghost boy better than you!"**

**The whole cafeteria fell completely silent and gasped. Even Sam and Danny were surprised by their friend's comeback. Was he out of his mind? Dash's bright indigo eyes just burned with rage. Danny could picture invisible smoke whistling out for Dash's ears like a tea kettle.**

**"Say that again, Foley?" he said angrily, through clenched teeth.**

**The African American gulped and looked up at a fuming Dash. His turquoise eyes shrunk into pin point sized dots. "You h-h-heard m-me," he said fearfully. "Paulina likes the g-g-ghost b-b-boy-"**

**"Zip it, geek!" Dash stomped towards the frightened Tucker, pushing his gang aside to show them that this was a personal matter. He surprisingly grabbed Tucker by collar of his shirt and violently shook him until his trademark glasses shattered onto the floor.**

**"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone of voice, you little nerd!" he snarled.**

**"Put him down, Dash!" shouted Sam.**

**"This doesn't concern you, Manson. Why don't you just smooch Fenton while you wait?"**

**"For the last time, I'm not his girlfriend!"**

**Danny just sat there staring at his two best friends while they were beaten by Dash and his insults. How could he be so stupid? He saw Sam make a run for Dash, but was pulled back by Kwan and the rest of Dash's gang by her ponytail. She cried out in pain, trying to hit any of them while her arms were held by two other members of the football team. It was one thing to bully Tucker, but now Sam?**

**That was the last straw.**

**"Leave them alone, Dash," he growled, now standing up from the table with curled up fists.**

**Dash stopped shaking Tucker and faced Danny. His eyes lowered.**

**"What did you just say, Fenton?"**

**Danny frowned and crossed his arms. "You heard me idiot, or do you need a dictionary to understand what I'm saying?"**

**The whole cafeteria gasped again. Dash threw Tucker onto the floor in a heap and stomped towards Danny, like an angry bull to a matador.**

**"And just what do you think you're going to do about it, huh?" he sneered, while lightly shoving Danny across the room like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Danny's eyes flashed a familiar bright green and smirked.**

**"This."**

**He swiftly grabbed Dash's wrists tightly and twisted them in a bone crushing snap. While the jock hollered out in pain, Danny crouched down and swept his left leg behind Dash's, forcing him to trip and fall like a ton of bricks. Dash had the wind knocked out of him; he gasped heavily for his lungs to become normal again.**

**"Guys, a little help?" he wheezed.**

**His gang blinked twice for a second to process the leader's command. Kwan charged in first, roaring a wordless battle cry while the rest of the group followed. Dash saw Danny's eyes flicker green once more and just gave a playful snort.**

**"Oh please…"**

**As the cloud of rambunctious and angry jocks came in arms length, Danny just merely sidestepped out of the way and put his left foot out. With a loud crash, the jocks one by one tripped and fell like a row of dominoes onto a vacant table.**

**"Is that the best you can do, Dash?" he mocked. "Your gang is nothing but mere muscle and no brains. Just like you."**

**Dash growled furiously. "Why you little…"**

**He stumbled up to his feet, but before he could take a step to punch the black haired teenager, Danny grabbed Dash by the collar of his shirt and slid him across an occupied table. Leftover trays, uneaten food and garbage was projected every direction while the students scattered.**

**Danny bared his teeth and let a loud, rattling growl escape from his throat. "Now, I have a few things to discuss with you, Dash."**

**Dash smirked. "What thinks I'm going to listen to you, Fentonio? I'm not afraid of you."**

**Danny's eyebrows lowered and his blue eyes faded to blood red. His pupils narrowed into tiny slits. He gritted his teeth, which now looked pointed and sharp like an animals. He still held a tight grip on Dash's shirt and now on his throat. Dash coughed and sputtered; his eyes widened in horror.**

**"I'm tired of you pushing me and my friends around," snarled Danny. "That also goes for the rest of the students. There going to be some changes around here from now on. One: my name is not Fentonio, nor Fentonowski, and its not even Fenton. It's Danny, and you'd better address me by that from now on."**

**Dash nodded. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Danny continued. "Two: Sam Manson is not my girlfriend. I repeat: she's not my girlfriend. She's one of my best friends and she's a girl, but that doesn't mean that we're necessarily dating.**

**Three: Tomorrow, you and your gang will apologize to every person you've ever bullied, tricked or tormented since the beginning of the school year, starting with Tucker. You can also pay for his glasses you just broke a few minutes ago, too.**

**Four: You will go to Mr. Lancer later today and confess all the incidents you blamed me for this year. He'll see to it that he gives a necessary number of detentions and whether he'll decide keep you on the football team."**

**Dash gulped, noticing now Danny's grip was slowly loosening from around his neck.**

**"In spite, I'm going to let you go, knowing as I can't hold you like this all day," Danny concluded. Dash sighed, but was cut short by a swift choke to the neck once again. Danny moved in close to his face, his eyes glowing red in fury.**

**"But, if I catch you harming my friends like that again, I'm going to make you wish you were never born. Am I clear, Baxter?"**

**"Crystal," Dash croaked. "Just please, let me go!"**

**Danny then snarled once again and threw Dash into the wall so hard that it caused the bricks to dent. Dash slumped down into an almost unconscious heap. The once most popular guy in Casper High, had been beaten by the person he loathed and tormented all this time. His perfectly slicked back blonde hair was now a mess and covered in cafeteria food. His once clean clothes were now stained and torn. He saw his black shirt had a large hole at the collar, about the size of his fist. Strangely, it was the exact same place Danny had grabbed him.**

**"Wimp," Danny muttered as he walked towards the main doors. A frightened Sam and Tucker just stared at him speechless of what he might do to them.**

**"Are you coming?" he asked.**

**Sam and Tucker noticed their friend's eyes were back to normal. Nervously, they got up and walked beside him, leaving the cafeteria silent and puzzled as they were. It wasn't long before they blindly walked into something solid and fell to the floor. All three of them looked up to see a shocked Mr. Lancer and Jazz Fenton standing in the doorway.**

**"The Count of Monte Cristo!" the teachercried, using one of his famous book title exclamations as looked among the battle scarred room. "What happened here?" He gasped when he saw the beaten Dash, lying almost unconscious against the wall. He ran up to him to see he was okay.**

**"Are you alright, Mr. Baxter?" he asked, trying to bring Dash to his feet. "What on Earth happened to you?"**

**Dash looked up at Mr. Lancer weakly and made a head gesture to Danny. "Danny…he did this." Then he passed out into the English teacher's arms. Mr. Lancer turned to Danny, his mouth gaping open.**

**"Is this true, Mr. Fenton?" he demanded. "Did you do this? All of this?" He moved to head to where Dash's beaten and bruised posse was.**

**Danny got up and looked at Lancer hard in the eye, never blinking once as he replied.**

**"Yes, I did."**

**"I don't understand."**

**"He was hurting Sam and Tucker," Danny said firmly. "He started the fight by flinging food at me as a joke. Then, he was going to beat the living crap out of Tucker when he was sticking up for me. Sam told him to buzz off, and Dash let his thugs get her. That's when I came in and told them to leave them alone. Dash didn't listen to me and decided to push me around."**

**"So you decided to beat him up until he was unconscious?"**

**"He got what was coming to him for a very long time! Since the beginning of the year, he has been pulling off pranks and bullying other people behind your back. Who do you think was the cause of that food fight six months ago? Who was the one who decided to pull off a fake fire drill last week and blamed it on me? Who was the one who made me late last week by shoving me into my locker? Dash Baxter, that's what!"**

**"Mr. Fenton, I don't know what you're talking about, but I can assure you Dash wasn't the cause of this!'**

**"Yeah, that's right. Take his side, and blame everything on me!" shouted Danny. "You always do this! You might not know this but be torments me for fun every single day of my life when I'm here, and you don't seem to care a single thing about it! Sam and Tucker can even tell you what happened. Go on, tell him guys."**

**Danny gave a hopeful look at Sam and Tucker to help bail him out of this situation, but they didn't know what to say to explain this whole scene. He looked at Jazz, but she just hung her head in shame.**

**"I don't know what's come over you Danny," said Mr. Lancer strictly, "but you are in huge trouble once we get Mr. Baxter to the hospital."**

**"Look, can't you see I didn't mean to cause this much trouble?" Danny exclaimed. "This was his entire fault to start off with and you call yourself a teacher? You're supposed to help students, not ignore them!"**

**"One more word of you, Danny, and you're going to be expelled from Casper High!" Jazz clasped her hands over her mouth in shock. She didn't want her brother to be expelled from school and not receive a proper education. Plus, she would never hear the end of it when her parents found out.**

**"Danny, don't do this," she warned quietly.**

**"I don't care anymore!" screamed Danny. "They say they can help me with my problems, but then they abandon me in my time of need. I've had it with this school! I'm out of here for good!"**

**Danny then shoved past his friends and his sister and ran down the empty hallway. In frustration, he transformed and flew through the roof of the building. By the time Mr. Lancer, Jazz, Sam and Tucker caught up, Danny was gone without a trace.**

**"Of Mice and Men!" exclaimed Mr. Lancer, puzzled by Danny's quick escape. "Where could he have gone off to? Surely, he could have gotten that far!"**

**Trust me, thought Jazz worried. You don't know what my brother can do when he's a ghost.**

**Danny flew into the afternoon sky, still fuming about the fight. How come everything bad has to happen to him while he's human and a ghost? Danny snorted in frustration as he looped around a flagpole. He heard a loud growl out of nowhere. He instantly found out it was his stomach. He had been so distracted sticking up for his friends, he didn't have a chance to take a bite of his lunch.**

**"Oh great," Danny grumbled, "and I don't even have enough money to grab half of an order of fries at the Nasty Burger! Just great…"**

**Ironically, he was just near the entrance of his favorite restaurant. He smelt the grease and burgers grilling inside. Just thinking about it made his stomach growl louder. He stopped in mid air, paused for a moment to think and then grinned.**

**He made himself intangible and flew down into the roof of the Nasty Burger.**

**"Have a nice day, sir! Enjoy your meal!"**

**Katrina gave a friendly smile as her customer walked away without bothering to say "thank you" for her service. Then she gave a heavy sigh and frowned. She curled her finger around her light brown hair and straightened out her official "Nasty Burger" uniform.**

**"It's only for another month," she muttered. "'Just until I get enough money to pay for college. Then I can get out of this du -"**

**She stopped mid sentence as her body contracted and her skin became cold as ice. She couldn't move speak or even blink once; it was like she was a living statue. The last thing she saw was a flash of neon green before she blacked out.**

**"Hey, I need a number one with a cola to go, stat!"**

**The sudden shock of the Katrina's voice made Ben's spatula airborne and dropped back onto the grill. He was quite surprised with the enthusiasm in her voice. By now, her cheeks would be aching from smiling so much and she'd be half asleep from her 6 am shift. He shrugged, an order was an order.**

**In a matter of seconds, a white bag with the "Nasty Burger" logo printed on the front, slid down the metal shute; packed up and ready to go for travel. Katrina picked up the bag in one hand and gave a 'thumbs up' to Ben.**

**Ben chuckled. "You're welcome!"**

**The cook's smile suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a gasp. Katrina's body was glowing. Something Ben had never seen in his entire life until he noticed what happened next. A shimmering turquoise blue image flew out of her chest and materialized into a kid wearing a black and while jumpsuit, with white hair and bright green eyes. Ben suddenly knew who this kid was.**

**"Danny Phantom?" he asked; his mouth still agape.**

**The ghost boy paused, turned and winked at Ben. Then he snatched the bag out of the semi conscious Katrina's hand with lightning fast speed and placed a couple of quarters in its place.**

**"Here's a tip for your troubles," Danny said softly. "Thanks for all the helpful service!" He turned back to Ben and gave a quick 'thumbs up'. "You too, man."**

**Danny then turned intangible and disappeared through the ceiling in the blink of an eye. Ben and Katrina rubbed their eyes in bewilderment. Katrina stared at her tip and then back at the ceiling.**

**"What the heck just happened here?" she demanded. "Was that the ghost kid? Did he just give me a tip and a helpful comment? Wow!"**

**Ben placed his spatula down and counted up the quarters in his co-worker's hand. He paused for a brief second until he realized something.**

**"Hey, he didn't pay!"**

**Danny sat in the tallest and shadowy branches of an old oak tree in the community park while he devoured his well deserved meal in less than six bites. While he licked off the ketchup from his white gloves, he realized something: he was still in his ghost form. What if someone saw him? Better yet, what if his parents saw him? He couldn't walk around as Danny Fenton that's for sure, not what happened back at the school. It was best to stay as a ghost for the time being until things died down.**

**He laid his back against the tree's trunk and let the gentle cool air brush against his face. It was nice to relax for a change instead of fighting ghosts like Technus or Skulker, all the time. The whistling of the leaves soothed Danny as he closed his eyes slowly. Then before he knew it, he was asleep.**

**A loud chattering woke Danny up with a start. A brown squirrel stood before him on the branch he sat on, holding an oversized acorn in its jaws. It kept chattering like crazy, tying to tell him to get out of the way. Before he knew it, a loud, agitated growl and an ear shattering bark escaped from the ghost boy's mouth that made the rodent scatter with pure terror.**

**"It serves you right for waking me up, you little pest!" Danny shouted as the squirrel ran through the grass to the neighboring tree.**

**He sighed and stood up to stretch his tired limbs. A little sleep did him some good after what he had been through today. He decided to fly around a little bit before he went back home so he could lock himself in his room for the rest of his life.**

**The park seemed peaceful. There were hardly any people around, only dog owners and…**

**"FRISBEE!" Danny cried happily, while cranking up his speed to catch the nearby flying yellow disk. The Frisbee was flying high in the air in a lemon yellow blur while a German Sheppard and a golden retriever ran along side each other, their slobbering tongues hanging outside of their mouths. Unfortunately for the dogs, the ghost boy was much too fast for them and caught their beloved toy right in his mouth happily, then landed on the ground on all fours.**

**The two canines barked loudly, but Danny let out a deep, throaty growl and his eyes shone a brighter green than before. The dogs' barking suddenly ceased and whined, while cowering with their tails in between their legs. Danny blinked for a moment confused, then took the now slobbered Frisbee out of his mouth and threw it back into the air. The dogs took no time to recover from their 'ghostly' encounter and sprinted across the grass after their toy.**

**What was that all about? he wondered. I've never done that before…**

**"Mommy, Mommy! Look: it's Danny Phantom!"**

**Danny turned around to see an eight year old boy with short light brown hair and bright turquoise eyes. He had a rounded face with freckles dusted around his cheeks and a small pointed nose. He was wearing a faint turquoise and red shirt, red pants and white shoes. The ghost boy suddenly remembered that this was the little boy he met back at Christmastime when he was trapped in the book by the Ghost Writer. According him, the little boy thought Danny was cool. Danny mentally chuckled. Cool. That was something he hadn't been called in a while.**

**"Jason, you'd better not be pretending again - oh…"**

**Danny looked up to see Jason's mother who had been walking up the side walk, now stood perfectly still with fright. Jason, though, had left his mother's protection seconds ago and was running through the grass with an excited twinkle in his eyes.**

**"Wow! You're so cool, Danny!" cried Jason, who was now standing in from of the ghost boy. "I've seen you on TV fighting those ghosts with your powers! You're all like: 'Whoosh!"' and 'Pow!' and 'Bang!'"**

**What the heck does this kid eat? Liquid sugar?**

**Danny picked himself off of the ground and brushed some invisible dirt off his uniform. "Uh, thanks kid." He realized the sky was getting dimmer; it was time to go home and face the music. "Look, I…um… got to go. 'Got to do some, uh… town patrol, in case any ghosts show up."**

**Jason smiled. "Okay, but before you go…" He dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a black marker and a small piece of crumpled ball paper. "Can I have your autograph?"**

**Danny blinked twice, baffled. Autograph?**

**"Jeez, that kid has got to get some sort of hyperactive management course or something. He was bouncing off the trees when I gave him that autograph! Of course not, Sam; I didn't give him my real signature, I just did my costume symbol. I'm not that stupid! How's Dash? Ooh, yikes! Well, he got what he deserved over half a year…"**

**Danny flew through the evening sky while he talked on his cell phone. It was too risky to use the Fenton Phones; his parents could tap into the line to figure out where he was. Well, Phantom possibly, not Fenton. He still had to take precautions.**

**"Yes, yes. I'm fine, Tuck. No sudden attacks. It was hard not being seen today. Is Jazz-?" His face fell suddenly. "Oh…okay. I'd better sign off. Later."**

**Danny turned his cell phone off as he phased through the Op-Center of Fenton Works and changed back to normal once he entered his room. He suddenly saw a neatly folded piece of paper on his dresser. He opened it and began to read.**

**Danny,**

**I have talked with Mr. Lancer after you suddenly 'disappeared', and he seemed really serious of expelling you from school. Nonetheless, I convinced him to suspend you from school instead for a few days next week, saying that you were possessed by a vicious ghost. I don't know what happened to you today, but you have to be careful of using your powers like that again. That was too close to revealing your secret. Who knows what could have happened if the school found out you were Danny Phantom!**

**I have gone to visit Dash at the hospital to see if he's okay; won't be home until possibly 9 pm tonight. Mom and Dad have gone to a ghost hunting convention out of town somewhere, and will be back around tomorrow night at the latest.**

**There are some leftovers in the fridge if you're hungry and don't use your powers if necessary (ex. A ghost attack), I'm still puzzled of what happened last night. I hope you can manage all of what I have mentioned in this note.**

**See you later,**

**Jazz**

**P.S. You should take the extra time you have tonight to come up with an excuse for Mom and Dad. Mr. Lancer called tonight and left a message on the answering machine. Do not erase it. I'll be checking as soon as I get back to make sure it's still there.**

**Danny sighed. When the heck did Jazz take over Mom's place?**

**He crumpled up the note and threw it into his basket. He yawned loudly. According to his clock, it was only 8:30 pm, but he was exhausted beyond relief. Today had been a rough day for him. So much had gone on, but one thing he hadn't been satisfied with was with his fight with Lancer. He threatened him with expulsion from Casper High, just for getting back at someone who deserved payback. What a total jerk!**

**If Danny had the chance to get his hands on him, he'd have a long talk; a seriously long talk. He fell back on his bed frustratingly, and shut his eyes.**

**Mr. Lancer groaned as he shoved a full black garbage bag into one of the beaten up silver cans near the side of his house. His back was stiff today for some unknown reason.**

**"'Must have pulled something today," he muttered to himself. "I'd better take something before it gets any worse."**

**The nearby crickets chirping melody had suddenly silenced when he was walking out of the shadows of the back alley. He shivered with cold. He knew this evening was supposed to be cool, but this was ridiculous! The temperature had dropped rapidly in only a few seconds of stepping out of his home. It felt like an early winter chill, due to the fact he could see his own breath in the night air. He rubbed his arms and blew into his hands to keep warm.**

**As he turned around, his eyes lost all seriousness and shrank into tiny turquoise pinpoints. He gasped as his jaw dropped open. A dark and hulking shadowy figure, five times the size of him, stood before him on two pointed legs. It blood red eyes were now narrow slits of glowing red light, while its massive jaws curved into an angry scowl. Rows of jagged sharp teeth, coated in lime green saliva were the only other things Lancer could see through the dark of the night.**

**The creature growled with displeasure and stepped foreword. Lancer spotted something bright green sprouting from the creature's massive hands, five thin beams on each one. The vice principal began to tremble with fear, beads of sweat rolling down his face. His brain was screaming to get the heck out of there, but legs were frozen stiff. As the creature took another step, the dim moonlight shone on its head. Lancer spotted black hair, black as a raven's feathers and two small pointed ears stood back on its head, almost like a… wolf. But there were no wolves in this part of the country for miles. How could one have grown so large and stand on its hind legs?**

**Before he could think anymore, the wolf creature raised its shining green claws above its head and let a blood chilling long howl that sent massive shivers up Lancer's spine.**

**"Hound of the Baskervilles!"**

**A loud, horrifying scream cut through the bleak silence of the night.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Danny slept in late the next morning, which was Saturday. Sleeping in had always been his own Saturday tradition, while his father's was watching cartoons, due to his somewhat childish personality. Danny groaned as the sunlight hit his eyes.**

**"Ugh, stupid sun," he grumbled while he pulled the covers over his head. "Go bother someone else for a change…."**

**"Danny, get up now!" ordered Jazz sharply.**

**"But Jazz, it's only nine thirty…"**

**"I said now, or else I'm cramming you into the Fenton thermos until mom and dad get back!"**

**Danny didn't want to experience that tight scenario again. "Okay! Okay! I'm up!" He rubbed his tired eyes while he yawned loudly. "What's with the sudden drill sergeant attitude this morning?"**

**"Where were you last night?" Jazz demanded; her arms firmly crossed.**

**"What are you talking about? I was at home."**

**"No, you weren't."**

**Danny didn't understand what was going on. "What? I'm serious! I was in my room the entire night, asleep!"**

**Jazz wasn't convinced in the least, due to that her stern expression did not fade away in the presence of Danny's excuse. She just merely walked over to Danny's computer, typed recklessly on the keyboard and a webcam appeared up on the monitor.**

**"Then, what do you make of this?"**

**Danny read the header on the top of the online window: "Amity Park Online News: Special Report". This could only mean trouble.**

**"Good morning, Amity Park. I'm Tiffany Snow with an exclusive online update. Last night's sudden attack on 42 year old Casper High English teacher and Vice Principal, Edward Lancer, had proven to be an almost fateful battle.**

**At 9 pm last night, he was mysteriously attacked in an alleyway just outside his home. Luckily, one of his neighbors had woken up by the sudden noise just in time to call an ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived, Lancer was unconscious in an almost fatal state. He is currently hospitalized in a mysterious coma, along with four other victims, strangely all Casper High School students: Dash Baxter, Paulina Sanchez, Kwan Smith and Star Gallagher.**

**As of right now, for security reasons, local authorities have advised an 8 o'clock night curfew. Anyone out later by this time will be identified as suspects and will be returned to their homes immediately. Also, the Mayor insists the town to take precautions as of today to follow the safety instructions left behind by local ghost hunters: Jack and Maddie Fenton, who are both currently absent from their duties.**

**1) Do not come in contact with a ghost if you see one. Most likely, it is dangerous (no matter what shape it takes) and will attack if provoked.**

**2) Know who your friends and family are. Make a question only they could answer.**

**3) Know what your friend or family member looks like. Symptoms of a human under the possession of a ghost are most likely to be: unusual behavior, change in eye color and/or voice, extreme change(s) of outer appearance (i.e. an unusual glow around their bodies, paleness of skin tone), and an urge to attack or fight.**

**4) Children under fourteen years of age must be accompanied by an adult, older sibling or parental guardian to go anywhere outside of their home.**

**Police are still searching for evidence at the multiple crime scenes, with faint success. So far, they have found that all the attacks were around the same time as Mr. Lancer's with no signs of a break in; quite possibly the work of a ghost. One big question still remains a mystery to all the citizens of Amity Park: Where's Danny Phantom?**

**This has been a special live coverage from Amity Park News: encouraging you all to stay safe. Now, here's Lance Thunder with the weather…"**

**Jazz stopped the web cast and turned to Danny, who was now dumbstruck from the shocking news. His hands twisted around his bed sheets nervously. How could this have happened right in front of his nose? If this had been a ghost attack, like the police suspected, then why didn't he sense it? Unless it was the work of a halfa, like his clone: Danielle or his arch enemy: Vlad Plasmius. Both of them couldn't trigger his ghost sense…**

**"Jazz," said Danny truthfully, never talking his eyes of hers for a second, "whatever you heard on that web cast, I swear I had nothing to do with it! I would never attack any of those other students or Lancer!"**

**"If I can remember clearly, you seemed pretty mad at him yesterday," answered Jazz firmly. "And Dash too. You knocked him out cold at school, and now he's in a coma!"**

**"He got what was coming to him a long time ago! I only did that because he sent his goons on Sam and Tucker. It was clearly out of self defense!"**

**"Another reasonable thing was to find a teacher and explain what was going on. You weren't thinking properly out there! You almost got expelled if it wasn't for me!"**

**"But Jazz, I-"**

**"And if it was a ghost attack, why did you not leave me a note if you were going out?"**

**"I-"**

**"What would have happened if you were in trouble and I couldn't contact or find you?"**

**"I-"**

**"What if someone found out your secret identity? I swear Danny, sometimes you are so-"**

**"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP?"**

**Jazz gasped. Danny's eyes shone an angry bright green and his face was now tomato red from his sudden angry outburst. Jazz fell silent and nervous, as she stared at her brother's unusual glowing eyes.**

**"I don't know where I went last night, okay?" he spat, gritting his teeth hard. "I forget stuff. I'm not Mr. Perfect like you want me to be, Jazz. You also don't need to know my whole life by every damn minute either. I have a personal life too. Personal, as in you're not in it every damn second, standing over me like some sort of freaking overprotective hawk. I'm not the kid you knew five years back. You, on the other hand, were a freaking fink all your life!"**

**Jazz's eyes began to water uncontrollably. She hadn't heard her brother call her by that word since the whole Spectra incident. Danny jumped out of bed furiously and stomped to the door, his hands balled into fists.**

**"Just stay out of my way! You're not Mom and you're not the boss of me! So, stop helping!"**

**In anger, he punched his bedroom door as hard as he could. The wood was crushed against his fist and was splintered everywhere, although Danny didn't seem to realize his own strength. Then he disappeared down the hallway, without even looking at the damage he had caused to his sister or the door.**

**Jazz just stared at the now dented wooden door with widening eyes. Tears were running down her face, but she didn't seem to care. She was just worried of how her little brother was behaving. She didn't mean to get so carried away. Maybe she was a little too overprotective…**

**As she got up and wiped her eyes off with the back of her hand, she felt something soft but wet against her foot. She screamed for a second and thought it was a mouse or something smaller, but it didn't seem to move. Curiously, she got down on her knees to get a closer look. She thought she was going to throw up when she saw what it was.**

**It was a giant black hairball, entirely coated in saliva or something wet and disgusting that Jazz didn't even want to think about. It had been poking out of Danny's bed sheets this whole time and yet she didn't seem to notice until now. She wondered if he had accidentally let in a cat and hadn't told her yet. She pulled back the covers to see if there had been a cat or some other animal in this room, due to it could have shed its fur everywhere.**

**Unfortunately, Jazz was wrong. There wasn't any trace of hair anywhere, but she did find something else. Danny's sheets had been ripped to shreds of blue material. Even his pillow had been reduced to ribbons and feathers. It was like someone or something had broken into his room. But the question was: who or what was it and why was it after Danny?**

**Things just got a lot more complicated.**

**"I'm telling you guys, Jazz has been way too overprotective lately!" Danny cried. "I wish she would just leave me alone!"**

**Tucker, Sam and Danny walked down the sidewalk to Amity Lanes: their local bowling alley. Danny had just finally finished explaining of this morning's argument with Jazz, still furious as ever. Sam and Tucker were a little shocked of how their friend was treating his sister.**

**"Danny, I'm sure she didn't mean to do that on purpose," said Sam. "She was probably just worried where you where last night."**

**"Yeah," added Tucker. "We tried calling you last night, but you didn't answer any of your phones. We were kind of worried too."**

**"Well, you don't have to," snapped Danny. "I'm old enough to handle things on my own."**

**A bright orange tabby cat suddenly passed by the three teenagers' feet from the alleyway with a half rotten fish daintily hanging out of its mouth. Danny bared his teeth just by looking at the scrawny feline. Somehow, he felt angry about something and clearly his mind was telling him to take it out on the cat.**

**"Danny?" Sam asked. "Are you okay?"**

**A sudden bark was let loose from Danny's throat, making the cat drop its early lunch and made a break for it down the street. Before he knew what he was doing, Danny chased the feline at top speed, his eyes blazing red over blue. However, the cat was a bit quicker than the halfa and lost him though a crowd of people at a bus stop.**

**"Crap…" Danny cursed, panting while his eyes quickly faded back to blue. "He got away..."**

**"Danny!"**

**Sam and Tucker ran over to where Danny was, panting louder than him and sweating a little bit.**

**"What-the-heck-was-that?" wheezed Tucker, trying to catch his breath.**

**"It was nothing," Danny lied. "I thought that cat had a dollar bill in its mouth." Truthfully, he wasn't even sure what just happened. One minute, he was fine. The next, he was chasing cats down the street.**

**"Nothing?" shouted Sam. "You just ran down three city blocks after a stray cat in thirty seconds flat! How's that nothing?"**

**"Must be my powers," Danny muttered. "I've felt stronger than usual lately."**

**"We know that by now," reminded Tucker, remembering yesterday's cafeteria incident. "You were just a freaky blur back there. We couldn't even notice that you were gone until after five seconds! You just were so freaking damn fast!"**

**Danny shrugged lightly. "Like I said, it must be my new developing ghost powers." His stomach suddenly growled. He realized he hadn't eaten anything this morning after he had fought with his sister. "We should grab a bite before we bowl. Nasty Burger, okay?"**

**"Hey, Danny. What will it be?" asked Valerie Grey at the cash register. "The usual, I take it?"**

**"Uh, I'm actually a bit hungrier than usual today," Danny said awkwardly. "I've been working out a bit at home…"**

**"That probably explains a lot…" Valerie was absent in the cafeteria yesterday, but she had heard about Dash's mishap. "From what I heard, Dash's in the hospital out cold. What happened yesterday?"**

**"Grey! No socializing on duty!" shouted the crackly voice of Irvin "Third Degree" Burns: the fast food joint's manager, from the back.**

**Valerie gritted her teeth hard and sighed. "Yes, sir…"**

**"I'd better order before 'Third Degree' blows," said Danny. He looked up at the menu. "Um…three Mighty Meaty Cheesy Melts with extra bacon, no condiments, veggies or cheese, and a diet cola."**

**Valerie blinked, slightly baffled by her ex-boyfriend's order. "So…all you really want is meat and bread…"**

**"And a diet cola," Danny added with a nervous smile.**

**Valerie raised an eyebrow. "Right…" She punched the order into the machine, while Danny handed her a twenty after she came up with the total of $14.35.**

**"So, how's the new job?" asked Danny. "I guess it beats the old one?" He remembered when he and Valerie had been paired up as parents to a sack of flour for a school assignment, and found out after they had escaped the Ghost Zone that she had been the person in the Nasty Ned (the restaurant's mascot) costume all along. He decided to make it up to her by putting on the suit himself as an apology for being such a jerk that whole week.**

**Thinking about then and now, Valerie wasn't as aggressive to others as much, except on the rare occasion when he was cruising around town as Danny Phantom. Seeing Phantom always made her as angry as a bull in a china shop since he had accidentally ruined her social life four months back with the ghost dog incident. Still, Danny really wanted to tell her one day about his secret identity without having to put up with an ecto-gun pointed at his head, but until then, it was the game of cat and mouse.**

**"Beyond," said Valerie with a smile, talking loud enough so only Danny could hear her and not her boss. "With the occasional run-ins with Irv, I guess it's safe to say it pays more." Her smile instantaneously vanished, now showing her seriousness about the situation. "But you still haven't explained to me how you did that to Dash. How the hell did you manage to literally beat him into a brick wall?"**

**Danny sweated a bit. "To tell you the truth, Val, I'm not sure. I was just so sick and tired of him pushing me and my friends around, I guess I finally snapped. I really don't know what came over me…"**

**"Maybe, it was Phantom." Valerie spoke Danny's other name with venom. "He's always causing trouble around here…"**

**Danny shrugged. "'Could be. Who knows?"**

**Valerie loaded Danny's order onto a plastic red tray and handed him his change, but he pushed her hand back. "You keep it," he said softly. "Think of it as a personal tip."**

**The African American stared at the crumpled five dollar bill and tarnished sixty-five cents in her palm, and then looked up at the raven haired fourteen year-old. "But-"**

**"Keep it," Danny repeated, a little more firmly, but still keeping his Fenton charm at a desired strength. "You need it more than I do." He curled her fingers over the money gently with his hands. Then, he took his food piled tray and walked away until the sudden date opportunity came into place.**

**"Oh, I almost forgot! Sam, Tuck and I are all going bowling later on and-"**

**"I wish I could, Danny, but I can't. I'm working double shift all this weekend. Irv has been a little bit concerned about…my working habits lately…" Valerie sounded nervous when she spoke, quite possibly trying to lie about her ghost hunting since she didn't know that Danny knew her secret. "Maybe, I can play next week if I'm not busy. Is that alright?"**

**Danny's heart sank. "Yeah, that's alright," he said, quietly trying not to show his disappointment in front of his ex-girlfriend. "See you later, then…" Then, he walked over to his friend's table to tell them what happened.**

**After five games of non-stop bowling, the gang left Amity Lanes satisfied with their Saturday amusement. As always, Danny had kicked Tucker's and, incredibly, Sam's butts on all five games. He also had made a new stunning average of 210, making his 150 look useless. Still, Danny heart was still sunk since his chat with Valerie back at the Nasty Burger.**

**"Dude," said Tucker, "you have to let Val go. You know it was Technus who set you two up in the first place."**

**"I know!" Danny shouted. He finally calmed down and sighed heavily. "I know…but didn't Ember do the exact same thing with me and Sam about four months back?"**

**Sam froze. "Er, yeah, but remember it was so she could distract you from trying to stop her worldwide mind controlling concert," she said quickly, not noticing that her cheeks where now tinged light with rouge. "I mean, it's not like the universe was forcing us to be together…"**

**She bit her lip. Right?**

**Danny looked at Sam confused of why she was blushing. "Sam?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Why are your cheeks so red?"**

**Sam nervously smiled. "Well, I, er…was just thinking of someone at the moment…"**

**"Who?"**

**"Oh, uh, no one in particular…"**

**"Come on, Sam," said Tucker slyly. "You can tell us."**

**Sam glowered at the African American. "I said it was no one in particular, so lay off."**

**"Sam, you don't have to give attitude to Tucker like that," said Danny firmly. "We just wanted to know-"**

**"Damnit, Danny! You sound like my dad!"**

**Danny hesitated. "Come on, Sam, I do not! I just-"**

**"Danny, for once in your life, just shut up!"**

**The raven haired teenager instantly fell silent. Sam had never raised her voice to him since she found out Danny had been spying on her when she was going out with Gregor about a month ago. Tucker was also quiet. Danny had noticed that Sam had small tears forming in her amethyst eyes.**

**"Sam…" he began, but Sam cut him off.**

**"Don't, Danny," she said angrily. Her voice was trembling with every word she spoke. The tears slowly fell down Sam's face. "I don't know what your deal is this week. First, you're attacked and left in a coma for over three days. Then, you go ballistic in the cafeteria and run off without telling us what the hell happened. Now, you're trying to flirt with the ghost hunter and that girl who was dealing shoes in the bowling alley-"**

**"That was totally diff-"**

**"No, it's not different at all. It's like when you were the judge for that beauty pageant that ghost set up." Sam backed away slowly from her two friends. "You've changed…"**

**Danny reached his hand out to Sam. "Sam, I-"**

**"Leave me alone!"**

**Sam turned away, still crying, and ran down the road as quick as she could. Danny started to run after her, but Tucker rested a hand on his friend's shoulder to stop him.**

**"What are you doing, Tuck? I need to go after her!"**

**Tucker shook his head. "Let her go, man."**

**"But-"**

**"She needs to alone. Trust me, I've seen rebound chicks that I've tried to get, but they freak when I try to ask them out. Besides, Sam's got some of your dad's equipment just in case there's any trouble."**

**"But that's not the point, Tucker. I need to talk to her so I can straighten things out-"**

**"Danny, please. We've all been friends for as long as we can remember and you know how we react to things that we have our issues with. Just let her cool down for a while and call her later tonight, okay?"**

**Danny's tense muscles relaxed after some thought. "Alright…" he sighed.**

**When Danny arrived home later that afternoon, Jazz was nowhere to be found. That is, until he found a note near the phone in the living room.**

**Danny,**

**I've gone out to the library to do some research. Like before, leftovers are in the fridge and my cell will be on. Leave a note in case you're going out again tonight on whatever reason. I will be back before 8. Mom and Dad should be home a bit later.**

**Don't forget about the excuse.**

**Jazz**

**"Typical," muttered Danny as he crumpled the paper in his palm and incinerated it with ecto-energy.**

**He walked downstairs into the lab. For most teens, a lab in your own basement was just another sign that you were a total science geek. Danny, however, wasn't a science geek. His parents were. Paranormal science geeks, if you wanted to get technical. Most of the lab consisted of beakers, test tubes and unfinished ghost hunting inventions. For the piece de resistance was the Fenton Portal, lodged into the wall in its sheer greatness.**

**Danny sighed. "Well, since I have nothing else to do…"**

**He typed away madly on his computer which was on the far side of the lab, accessed his existing game file on Doomed, and began to play. A little bit of mindless game play would take some pressure off of things…**

**"Come on…come on…yes! That's five silver keys!"**

**It was around 7:30 pm when Danny decided it was enough of blasting and monster fighting for one day and shut his computer off. He heard a few hard cracks when he got up from his chair and stretched his tired limbs. He had been playing for three hours straight, minus the time he had went upstairs and had dinner, but he knew when to stop.**

**The image of an emotionally hurt Sam suddenly poured into his thoughts. He had forgotten to call her since he was too busy getting into the Forest of No-Return on Level 6. Luckily, he had her number on speed dial.**

**"Come on, Sam. Pick up…" He muttered as the phone rang its monotone tenor.**

**"Hey, you've reached the voice mail of Sam Manson. Sing your message at the beep."**

**Danny frowned. Darn it…**

**"Sam, it's Danny. Listen, I'm sorry if I got on your case this afternoon. I didn't mean to be a jerk to you; I just wanted to know what was going on. If you want to talk to me, just…please pick up the phone."**

**Danny then hung up. He knew Sam wouldn't be anywhere else but home, since she knew she didn't want to do anything social on a Saturday night. Probably she was watching a movie downstairs in her own personal theatre. He decided to call Tucker.**

**"Hello?"**

**"Hey, Tuck. It's me."**

**"Hey, man. Did you try to make up with Sam?"**

**"Tried it, didn't work. She's not answering the damn phone."**

**"No worries. I'm sure she'll call you back sooner or later. Any ghosts lately?"**

**"No…well, Box Ghost came up again, but you know how it is with him…"**

**"He doesn't know when to quit does he?"**

**Danny laughed.**

**"What about Jazz?" asked Tucker. "'Did she try to talk to you when you got back?"**

**"She hasn't had time to talk," Danny said curtly. "She went to the library to do some research or something like that. My folks aren't going to be back for another few hours either."**

**"So, you're home alone?"**

**"Pretty much." Danny heard a strange howling noise in the background. "What are you doing anyway?"**

**"'Watching the Horror channel. They're having a huge lineup of werewolf movies until five in the morning. My folks are out to dinner, so I'm alone too. Want to join me in the late night horror fest?"**

**"No thanks. I'm not in the mood tonight. You enjoy yourself."**

**"'Kay, dude."**

**"Oh, and Tuck?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Can you try to convince Sam to call me back? Maybe she'll listen to you."**

**"Alright, man. I'll try. Later."**

**Danny finally hung the phone back into the cradle and walked upstairs into his room. All this Sam business was making him tired. He yawned loudly. A little nap wouldn't hurt…**

**Danny ran a dark path, his heart beating twice as fast while this throat was dry and about ready to bleed from lack of moisture. Along the pathway were twisted dead trees along a pathway of cracked gravestones marked with unreadable words.**

**"Danny!" shouted Sam's voice in the black background. "Danny, where are you?"**

**"I'm here!" Danny called back into the air. "Hang on!"**

**A loud howling was heard over Danny's voice. "Danny, help me!"**

**"Sam!"**

**The bone chilling howl was heard again, making Danny's shouts sound like weak whispers.**

**Danny thought the path was never going to end until he found Sam standing at the end. His heart leapt with newfound joy as he saw her face, as if he hadn't been in contact with a human being forever.**

**"Sam!" he called out again. "I'm here!"**

**The howling was louder this time, somehow closer than he thought it would be. Danny looked back to see if anyone or anything was chasing after him, but he saw nothing but inky darkness. When he turned back to see Sam, she was being bathed in a bright purple glow. The light began to etch lines all over her visible skin on her body. They moved as if an invisible hand was drawing on her.**

**"Get out of there, Sam!" Danny hollered.**

**"Danny!"**

**Sam was somehow being outstretched into a star, with the markings forming into a star-like shape and a circle of purple light bordering it. She began to cry.**

**"Help me…" she croaked.**

**"SAM!"**

**Danny lunged for Sam in a desperate attempt to rescue her, but she had disappeared as the color of the light deepened into a bloody red. Suddenly, Danny felt like he was falling down into the light unable to change into Danny Phantom to fly.**

**"Come on, change!" he yelled to himself. "Why can't I change?"**

**"Weil du verflucht wirst, menschlich," said a loud and deep, chilling voice in the air. It was creepier and more evil than Dan Phantom's cruel voice could ever muster. "Du bist meiner jetzt!**

**Before Danny could figure out what language or who the voice belonged to, two large fiery red eyes pierced through the utter darkness. The familiar sounds of agonizing screams and howls from his dream while he was in the hospital poured through his mind. Danny had forgotten how painful they sounded in the interior of his skull.**

**"Just stop it!" he cried. "Stop it, now!"**

**"Help me, Danny!" pleaded Sam's voice along with the others. "Help me!"**

**And then, Danny was swallowed up into empty darkness.**

**"NO!"**

**Danny sprung up in bed, beads of cold sweat dripping from his brow. He clutched his chest as his heart pounded loudly against his ribcage. His breaths were raspy from shock and his skin as pale as chalk. He looked around his room, checking that he was back in reality.**

**"What a nightmare…" he muttered as he tried to calm down.**

**He wiped his hand across this forehead to remove the perspiration from his skin. The dream felt so real. He could still hear faintly the voices. Why was Sam there with them?**

**"Danny…"**

**Sam voice suddenly echoed softly in his head and a sudden burning sensation stung his hands painfully. Danny screamed as the pain intensified. He looked down to see that his hands were bathed in bright purple light, just like what happened to Sam in the dream. Two designs, both a circle with a large star in the center were etched into his palms; it was like someone pricking his skin with a white hot needle.**

**That's when the real pain began. He had somehow felt it before, back on that night when Jazz was out on patrol with him. The halfa howled in agony as bones cracked and shifted, reforming his body structure. His short nails grew into long green claws. Teeth lengthened into fangs. Danny fell off his bed with a hard 'thud', with his body now going into an insane spasm.**

**"What's…happening?" he grunted, scratching his newly formed claws into the hardwood flooring.**

**He heard a loud sound of material ripping at its seams. His trademarked red and white t-shirt was now tiny shreds of cottony fabric on the floor. Part of his jeans tore apart, but luckily just stopped around the mid thigh. Charcoal black fur sprouted everywhere, covering any visible skin on his body. His ears became pointier and shifted to the top of his head. His face lengthened into a long, pointed grey snout. A bushy black tail poked from the seat of his pants.**

**Then, his eyes narrowed into tiny blue slits. He howled loudly, letting the creature's instinct take a hold of him and leaving Danny Fenton a mere memory.**

**"Danny! I heard screaming! Is it a…"**

**The creature jerked its head in the direction of a now shocked Jazz Fenton, paralyzed with sheer terror in the doorway. Her eyes were shrunken into mere turquoise pinpoints and her frightened body shook as she gazed upon the creature that was once her brother.**

**"D-Danny?" she stuttered.**

**The creature's eyes instantly faded into a dark crimson and its green claws extended. It leaped at Jazz viciously with bared fangs. Too frightened to move, Jazz screamed the loudest scream she had ever done in her life, shut her eyes tightly, and waited for her life to end.**

**But it didn't.**

**Curious, she opened her eyes to find a deep claw mark, carved inches away from her face into the wall. She looked around, only to see that the black creature was gone from Fenton Works, leaving nothing but a trace of ripped cloth and claw marks in Danny's bedroom. Quickly searching through her purse, she found her cell phone and put in Sam's phone number on speed dial.**

**"Hello?"**

**"Sam, it's Jazz. Get Tucker and get over to my place as fast as you can."**

**"Why?"**

**"There's something wrong with Danny…Monstrously wrong."**


End file.
